by John Nest
"Shh, forget about it," said Smoke. "You had to do that, or else you would have been punished, right?"
"Yeah, exactly! Not only me, but Geisel as well," added Jack.
"By the way, what can you tell me about this Ayert character?" inquired Smoke. He wanted to know more about the person Cynar would not stop talking about.
"Not much, just that he's been friends with Cynar for as long as I could remember," replied the captive boy. "Ayert also wore a full-mask, but his was brown, a bit like yours. Now, that I'm looking at it closely."
Smoke nodded, and prodded some more. "So, Ayert and Cynar were really close friends, huh?"
"Yeah, but there was one more member to their inner circle," added Jack. "I haven't personally met him, but everyone I asked, always says the same thing."
"And what's that?" asked Smoke, intrigued.
"That they are the male reincarnation of the Magietrois," answered Jack. "I know, I know. It is a bit of a stretch. In fact, I think that it was Cynar who made up the rumor."
"Who's their third member, and what kind of Job does he have?" prodded Smoke.
"Never had the pleasure of meeting him, yet," promptly answered Jack. "Well, he does travel a lot, and he is the reason Cynar's OrkElf army has grown to this size."
Jack scratched his head, uncertain. "In fact, I don't think he's even been to Diebe Den, yet."
"Then why do you know about him?" asked Smoke. "And what's his name? You forgot to say his name."
"Well, I asked the OrkElves of course," retorted Jack. "And his name is—"
Smoke eagerly waited for Jack's answer. Yet, the captured aristocrat did not have the chance to do so as a masked Assassin had arrived.
"Faux! Finally, you're back," said Cynar cheerfully.
The self-proclaimed King of Thieves went in for a hug, but Smoke quickly offered out his hand instead.
"Good to be back," said Smoke, while shaking Cynar's hand. "Any news on the whereabouts of Wertlosvati?"
"No," said a disappointed Cynar. "But I do have some good news."
"What's that?" asked Smoke.
"Blaise is back!" yelled out Cynar with joy. "He's waiting for us outside the lair."
Cynar eagerly ran ahead of Smoke, as if it was a race for the exit.
"Who's Blaise?" guffed Smoke as he chased after the agile Assassin in black. He had difficulty running and talking simultaneously, especially with the low level of fresh air inside the cave.
"He's the General of my OrkElf army," replied Cynar with ease. "He doesn't want to admit it, but he is."
As soon as they stepped outside, fresh air greeted them. Smoke wanted to remove his mask to breathe in the sweet pomegranate filled wind, but decided not to.
After taking a look around, Smoke saw at least a thousand new OrkElves, wearing worn-out clothes and rags. There were adults and children alike. Yet, all of them wore the same expression, tired and hungry.
"Cynar! I've brought a little over one-thousand-five-hundred new recruits," said an OrkElf, donning a silver Knight's full armor. He had an ornately designed flamberge on his right-side and a simple round shield on his left. The flamberge caught Smoke's attention. He had seen flamberges before, but never one with bronze-flames for a hilt. It was a thin sword for a Knight to use, but something about it felt powerful, intimidating.
"Although, there are three-hundred children, but the rest are fit to fight," said the OrkElf Knight.
"That's great Blaise! Good work as always," greeted Cynar. "But I also want you to meet our latest member," he said, pointing to Smoke, "This is Faux. He's an Earth Elementalist. Thanks to him, we almost got Wertlosvati last time."
"Really? That sounds impressive," Blaise said to Smoke, giving him a small nod.
Blaise then pulled Cynar away from Smoke.
"Are you sure about this guy? Just because he's a DarkElf doesn't mean he can replace Ayert," said Blaise.
Smoke wondered if Blaise intended for him to hear it, because he spoke so loudly, it was clear enough for him to hear from far away.
"Hey, it's not because of just that," reasoned Cynar. "I also tested him with my casting circle of truth."
"You know that cheap imitation of yours isn't reliable," argued Blaise.
"Regardless, I think that Faux is dependable," countered Cynar.
The two OrkElves returned to Smoke.
"So, Faux, aside from your abilities, what else do you have to offer to this army?" inquired Blaise, with his eyebrows meeting.
Smoke crossed his arms, and wondered what else he could do. "I also know how to train soldiers. Can I train the new recruits?"
"That sounds like a great idea," said Cynar. "Well, Blaise, what do you say?"
"Yeah, yeah. I would love to see how you train them," answered Blaise.
Smoke nodded at the two of them, and stepped in front of the new arrivals.
"Alright, Everyone!" shouted Smoke, as he addressed the crowd of hungry OrkElves, "let's—"
"Wait, Faux, before you begin. I want all of the new arrivals to take a rest," stated Cynar with authority. "Go on, unload your stuff and relax for now," said the masked Assassin.
"And give them a lot of water," quickly added Blaise. He signaled to the OrkElves inside the lair.
At once, the stationed OrkElves near the entrance of Diebe Den scrambled to serve them water.
The tired recruits welcomed Cynar's command. They immediately sat down on the ground from where they stood, and gobbled up the water that was offered to them.
Smoke nodded, appreciating the Cynar and Blaise's instructions.
'Looks like they had the same idea as me,' thought Smoke to himself.
In response, he created a fire pit with his Earth Manipulation. He also asked it to be filled with pieces of wood. Smoke then placed a large pot and added in water, stone deer meat, and various vegetables into the pot.
He resorted to using venison instead of beef from the ancient bison, as his stock on that juicy meat was almost depleted.
Yet, as he was about to light the wood with Igniz's flames, he forcibly stopped himself, and stared blankly at the pit.
'How am I supposed to light this, without using Igniz?' Smoke wondered to himself.
He thought about using a pair of the ember stones, and use them as a flint. However, the silver Knight OrkElf suddenly stood next to him.
"Need a light?" Blaise asked Smoke.
"Yeah," sheepishly answered Smoke.
Blaise casually took out his flamberge from its scabbard, and its blade was covered in orange flames. He swung his fiery flamberge across the firewood, igniting them into flames.
'So it really was a flame sword!' concluded Smoke upon seeing the wavy fiery blade.
"You like it?" asked Blaise.
Smoke's coveting gaze upon the sword was as clear as the Zectas sun.
"It's called Salamander's Tongue," added Blaise.
"So, you're a Flame Knight?" Smoke asked Blaise, trying to change the subject.
"Yeah," Blaise proudly answered. "You've heard about Elemental Knights? There are only a few of us here in Vitzytl."
"Oh, I'm originally from Chayotl Kingdom," replied Smoke, "and there are plenty of Elemental Knights there."
"And what brings you all the way here? A full continent away?" questioned Blaise.
"I'm looking for the Magietrois, and Cynar offered to help me by getting me into the Gagnant Tournament," answered Smoke. "After I help him eliminate Wertlosvati, of course."
"I see. So you're not here to join our ranks for good?" further inquired Blaise.
Smoke shook his head. "No, just until the Wertlosvati deal is over."
"I see. That sounds reasonable," said Blaise. "What is it that you're cooking, now?"
"It's called rejuvenison soup," answered Smoke. "Of course, I just came up with the name myself."
Blaise nodded, as he continued to observe Smoke's dish. "Looks like I might have judged you too quickly."
Without another word, Blaise
walked away and pulled Cynar along with him.
After a few minutes, the soup was finally ready. Smoke asked the help of the OrkElves as they served the new arrivals with his soup.
The tired OrkElves hungrily wolfed down the soup, and kept thanking Smoke as he continued serving them more of his dish.
+ Intimacy with new OrkElf arrivals has increased to 60
Smoke had hoped that something like this would happen, but he welcomed their wide smiles and happy chatter even more.
Cynar and Blaise had taken out chairs and placed them in front of Diebe Den's entrance.
'They must be hear to see my training methods,' surmised Smoke.
Loud slurping sounds still resonated among the recruits as there were still some soup left over. Smoke decided to let them finish before beginning. He did not care whether Cynar or Blaise were waiting for him to start.
When they were done, Smoke asked the children to be moved to a different location.
"Alright, now that you're all fed and rested, how about we begin some simple formations," spoke Smoke in a commanding tone.
"I want twenty men to form a straight line, right here," ordered Smoke, pointing both his hands in front of him.
Immediately, the exact number of OrkElves lined up as instructed. Smoke then stepped to the side.
"Next, I need fourteen more to fall in line directly behind them," added Smoke.
He repeated dividing them into such formations until he had four battalions with equal numbered members. He gave each battalion specific names.
"Now, I want you to remember your places and especially your battalions. When I call out your battalion name, I want you to fall into the same formation," explained Smoke. "Do you understand me?"
"Aye!"
"Yes!"
"Alright."
"Got it."
"Sure."
Smoke was answered with several versions of affirmation, and the OrkElves rambunctious voices resonated throughout the field.
"Also, from now on. All of you will answer me with, Sir, yes, Sir!" added Smoke. "Got that?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!" shouted half of the made up formation, but it was clear that there was still a delay with the rest of the OrkElves.
"Good. Now, I want you to scatter, and when I call your battalion, you line up in your proper formation," reminded Smoke.
The OrkElves chattered as they scattered through the fields.
"Alpha, queue up!" yelled out Smoke.
At once a group of unruly OrkElves ran around in circles, trying to reform their assigned locations. It took almost five minutes before everyone stopped and stood in place.
Just as Smoke slapped his face with his palm, Cynar and Blaise walked up next to him.
"I must say, that this all looks new to me," said Cynar. "Your training looks... intriguing."
"All I can say is that you better have them prepared soon," added Blaise. "We're just waiting for our scouts to return. I give you about three days."
"Three days, huh?" replied Smoke. "Yeah, alright. I'll get them in shape by then."
* * * * * *
Three days had passed, and Smoke's Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta battalions were still in no shape to fight against Orks. Sure, they had decreased their time to less than twenty-seconds to regroup into their instructed formations, but their time worsened again when they were given their long-spears.
Fortunately for him, Cynar and Blaise's scouts had returned empty handed as well.
From six in the morning till six in the afternoon, Smoke continued to grill the new recruits with various formations and basic attacks with the long-spears. After their grueling exercises, Smoke fed them with soup.
Everyday, he always told Cynar and Blaise that he would log out of Zectas after he was done training his recruits, but in truth he spent this time preparing for his plan to rescue Jack and the rest of the captive royals in Diebe Den.
In order to keep up with his strict timetable, Smoke sacrificed his scheduled sleep in the real world and reduced it to less than an hour. He also did not have much time to talk with Sierra, but she told him to keep at it and encouraged him to persevere.
It was not until after eleven days of the same tedious tasks and trainings that Smoke felt his recruits were ready. By then his Intimacy with them had grown to 85. He even received notifications of some of them wanting to join his private army. Of course, he declined all of them. He did not want Cynar or Blaise to suspect him.
Once Cynar and Blaise saw the improvement of Smoke's men, they asked Smoke to join his troops on their hunts for sand cheetahs and other monsters. However, Smoke refused as he wanted them to focus on mastering their basics.
Finally, after two weeks, Cynar and Blaise's scouts delivered word of Wertlosvati's whereabouts.
"Faux, ready your men," stated Cynar. "This time, let's end this."
"Alright, but I left something in my room," hurriedly said Smoke.
As he was leaving, Smoke overheard Blaise argue with Cynar.
"Are you really sure about this guy?" asked Blaise. "I mean, Faux's men don't even have combat experience."
"Don't worry about it," assured Cynar. "They might not be great attackers, but I'm sure they'll serve as great support for our main attack force."
"Fine!" retorted Blaise. "What's he doing, heading back inside the den, anyway?"
"Don't you remember Ayert?" reminded Cynar. "Didn't he always do those weird rituals before a big battle? I'm sure Faux is doing something similar."
After Smoke stepped out, Cynar and Blaise's army began heading for Wertlosvati's location. It took them almost two days to reach there, as Smoke's forces were on foot. Yet, they were not worried for the delayed travel time, as Cynar's scouts assured them that the Orks would stay for at least three more days.
Yet, despite their enthusiastic march, Cynar, Blaise, and Smoke stopped one-kilometer away from their prey. One of Cynar's scouts informed him of the latest developments. Alarmed by the news, Cynar himself insisted that the three of them formalize a strategy.
The UrukHai Orks numbered two-thousand strong. Whereas, Cynar and Blaise's OrkElf army numbered four-thousand-two-hundred. The OrkElves might have held the advantage in numbers but the Orks, however, held the superiority in raw power and battle experience. Not only that, the Orks were resting on an open field. The minute they came into view, Cynar was positive that the Orks would blindly charge them.
All three of them were mounted on dirus wolves as they talked about the unforeseen circumstances.
"So, you two understand that the odds are against us?" Cynar asked both Smoke and Blaise.
"I don't have a problem with facing them by myself," began Blaise. "But if we fought under this conditions, I'm afraid we'll lose more than half of our men. Even with most of them injured."
"I'd have to agree," concurred Cynar. "Wertlosvati's life isn't worth this much."
Cynar then turned to Smoke. "I'm afraid we have to wait for a better chance, Faux. Like last time when we had them cornered and they had lesser men."
Smoke strongly shook his head. He knew that it might take them another two weeks if they waited for another chance, and he did not have that kind of luxury.
"Wait, what if I can trap them?" offered Smoke.
"Can it, Faux," retorted Blaise. "Don't you think Ayert tried that already?"
"Yeah, Faux, I'm surprised that you came up with the same idea as Ayert, but that wouldn't work," explained Cynar. "It quickly turned south when the Orks worked together to climb out of the pit. We couldn't properly attack them as only the ones closest to the edge were accessible. In the end, we only made them angrier."
Once again, Smoke shook his head. "I don't mean trap all of them. Only about a third of their forces, two-thirds if we're lucky."
"That way there will still be some leftover, who we can fight, while the others will still be busy trying to get out of the trap," further expounded Smoke.
Cynar and Blaise looked at each other.
&n
bsp; "What do you think, Blaise?" asked Cynar.
Blaise scratched the back of his neck. "I hate to admit it, but it does sound like it could work."
The Flame Knight then turned to Smoke. "But are you sure your troops can handle the mightiest of Orks stampeding towards them? We are talking about the UrukHai, here."